Practicing the Presence of God

I have written about Br Lawrence’s Practice of the Presence of God before. I think it’s a simple yet profound way to deepen our relationship with Jesus, do small things with great love like St Therese and to grow in virtue
while we live out our Faith more consciously. I know I’d like to carry out my vocation as Mom…graciously, with more patience and love, but I inevitably become unravelled, and caught up in my often self-inflicted pressures of family life.

The tasks set out for me in my vocation as a Mom, if carried out with love, are supposed to catapult me to holiness! This is the Mom’s School of Holiness.

I get flustered by the needs and demands of my family and the general chaos can be overwhelming. I’d like to carry out all my tasks prayerfully…with grace and patience and gentleness, but I know…and I know my kids would agree….I just can’t pull that off. Cooking, cleaning, training, managing, driving, shopping and never-ending laundry can be tedious, thankless and frustrating. Even if I could get it all done….grace and patience and gentleness slip away pretty fast!

Jesus, I want to know Your Truth AND live it. Jesus, I’m so easily distracted, so easily jostled, startled, untethered. Jesus, I worry about so many things.

Jesus, I want to pray. I want my words to be deliberate and heart-felt. I want to say what my heart feels and listen intently and hear Your Words to me in my heart, with no doubt, no second guessing. I want to be focused and consumed by You and undistracted, unswayed.

I want to know You, bathe in Your Love, directed by Your Priorities and I want to receive Your Love and Your intentions for me, correctly, fully, purely.

I want to brim over with the fire of your Love, uncontained, unfettered, unlimited, unconstrained so that I can only reflect Your Love, enthusiastically and untarnished by human limitations.

that heals me in an instant, evaporates my insecurity and fears, quiets the voices with way too much clout and explodes in my heart a huge amount of confidence in God’s Love for me..so much that it barely fits and changes me forever.

I don’t like riddles…maybe because I’m dismal at them. Even if I’ve actually heard the riddle before, I probably won’t be able to spout the right answer, just like that. It just doesn’t excite me that much to be that kind of clever.

That said, I’ve just kind of realized that all this time, I’ve been assuming that God likes them. That God likes to talk to us in riddles and that He chooses to reveal His Plans for us in little broken pieces and clues and He waits with trepidation to see if we can actually figure out the big puzzle before us.

I’ve been going to Mass at least once a week for over 44 years. Even with the New Translation of 2011, the text of the Mass is pretty familiar…or is it?

The truth is, I don’t always hear the beautiful words of the Mass. It’s true I’m a little hearing impaired, but I think it’s quite possible for most of us to glaze over and not listen intently to the words of the priest. Heck, it seems like sometimes even the priest can glaze over a little bit and speed-read the prayers of the Mass, taking for granted the wisdom and the diligence of our Church to carefully choose these beautiful and meaningful words invoking the Holy Spirit, rounding up the Faithful and transubstantiating the very Body and Blood of Jesus Christ out of mere bread and wine. Continue reading “The Case for Sacred Subtitles at Mass”→

Jesus, I trust in You. You want me to draw closer to You, praying more, engaging more, asking for help instead of struggling on my own. Please remind me to call out to You and look to Mother Mary as my model. Please prompt me, remind me and guide me. Jesus, be my strength, I trust in You. Amen.

I’m trying something new over at my main blog Equipping Catholic Families.
I’ve opened up a secret portal and I’m going to post some more reflective posts…some plucked right out of my prayer journal >gasp<

I recently heard in a homily…how we should be more like Mary and follow her example, pondering these things in her heart.

This is a part of what I’m pondering in my heart….the rest is over here.

—1— Jesus loves me. Unconditionally.
—2— Jesus loves my kids even more than I do and no matter what mistakes I make, He can and will fix them and call them to Him.
—3—I am the lost sheep….and I’m hardly the only one. Everyone of us is the lost sheep: loved and searched for and taken up into His Arms as the treasured one.
—4— My desire to know Him, love Him, serve Him, please Him…is already a prayer and a sign that He is working in my life.

—5— The Holy Spirit is real. He moves, He speaks, He prompts, He inspires, He gives hope.
—6— The Saints are real. They call us, they come to us, they answer us, they look for ways to lead us closer to Jesus.
—7— Jesus is real. He materializes in the words of the priest at the Consecration. He waits for us in the Blessed Sacrament, He asks us to seek Him as much as He seeks us and He answers our prayers even if we don’t slow or quiet down enough to listen.

This is a treasure of a book. The form factor…its small pocketbook size, padded, board-book cover make it a special little gift with a big message. Affirming and personal and grounded in Scripture, this book offers a reminder of our dignity and preciousness as daughters of God.

Sprinkled with personal stories that we can relate to, assigned Scripture to further articulate each of the 40 days of messages, reflection questions to ponder and a prayer to complete the daily sojourn, this book provides a wonderful devotional or 40-day retreat, reaffirming our Scripture-confirmed worth and identity.

Written by a woman, for women, this is definitely a ‘chick-book’…although the affirming reminders that we belong to God and are cherished by Him are no less applicable to the male population of King’s Kids.

This is an excellent devotional…and the perfect gift…especially for the women in our lives.

I took a long time to create this Prayer Doodle! Pacing myself by reading only ONE devotional chapter a day, I slowly updated the Prayer Doodle as I worked my way through the book over at least 40 days. Yes, I may have missed a day or two, here and there. Extracting my most memorable message from each chapter and translating my notes to doodles, offered a great way to review and retain these basic, affirming messages. I enjoyed capturing all 40 days, all in one Prayer Doodle.

I deliberately didn’t color the doodle, in case I can leave that up to you…to color as you read the book after you WIN it in my special God’s Heart for You Giveaway below!

I will come to you in the silence
I will lift you from all your fear
You will hear My Voice
I claim you as My Choice
Be still, and know I am nearDo not be afraid, I am with you
I have called you each by name
Come and follow Me
I will bring you home
I love you and you are Mine

A few years ago, I attended a Memorial Mass for my best friend’s mother, just a few days after I had lost Baby Gabriel at 19 weeks. Another friend of mine sang a special hymn ‘You are Mine’ by David Haas, accompanied by my Mom at this Memorial Mass. Tears streaming down my face, I actually hid in the public washroom after Communion until long after Mass, not ready to face any familiar faces or condolences…and not yet able to give my friend nearly enough support through the recent loss of her Mom.

That summer was the season of ‘you are mine’ at church!

Those eight weeks of Masses…were filled with the hymn ‘You Are Mine’. I hadn’t remembered hearing it before….and now all of a sudden, it was the Holy Communion hymn of choice…no matter where we attended Mass!

Tired and embarrassed about repeatedly crying at Mass at my familiar
parish, we even did a little Catholic Church hopping, visiting neighborhood
parishes of some of our favorite priests. Communion time would come and my eyes
would begin to tear up with the first 3 notes of accompaniment…even before it
registered that it was that song again!

By the end of that summer, we attended a Catholic conference…and do you know what Hymn Mark Forrest sang beautifully, EACH DAY of the conference for the Communion hymn? You guessed it….and yes, I continued to cry like a baby.

7 years later, I chase 2 more kids in my house (one who could not have been born if we hadn’t lost Gabriel). I also lost another baby in this time….for a total of 5 kids in my house and 3 babies in Heaven.

Last April, we were at Mass at our Parish and I was surprised to hear ‘You are Mine’ begin. Bill squeezed my hand with a ‘you okay?’ to which I confidently shrugged that I was fine, clearly having healed after such a long time. Maybe I was just a little smug…because I then looked across the Church to see a couple I recognized, sitting beside their First Communicant. It was then that I remembered that they had been expecting their first child when I was expecting Gabriel….and that this Sunday would very well have been Gabriel’s First Holy Communion day. OK, so maybe I just needed one more little cry to ‘You are Mine’. Pray for me, Gabriel!

I just read these comforting words in a Facebook group from Madeline to another Mom who has just suffered a miscarriage. Sometimes people don’t know what to say to another experiencing loss, but I think this wonderful lady has just the right words.

I know you had dreams of holding him close, seeing his smile, holding his little
hand as he took his first steps, sitting him on your lap and telling him all the wonderful things about God, but He had a different plan. I hope you find comfort, one day, in knowing that you have a beautiful, perfect little boy in heaven who is now taking care of your family until you are able to join him, and that God instead, has your little boy on His lap and is telling him the wonderful things about you.